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Now that the holidays are almost over I’m flung right back into “reality”. A few days ago an electrical outlet blew and it basically took out two rooms, one being my laundry room. So I’ve been having to relocating our laundry room and living area to basically the middle of our house in our “storage room”. I am not looking forward to these changes.

For the amount of space we have, we have little to no storage and it’s extremely frustrating as we’ve had to convert our dining room into a storage room. It’s closed off via the kitchen with a door and the other side is a make shift curtain. Beautiful, I know, but at least it looks presentable and I’m not showing off boxes and bins when people walk down that hallway.

I don’t think I’ll be hosting a party until I can get this issue fixed. I’m bummed to say the least that this had to happen right around the holidays but I am relieved to know that it didn’t put a damper on my family and that’s really what means the most to me. However, it will put a damper on my bank account and that is slightly depressing but it needs to be done.

Its only Thursday and I’ve already re-decorated my kitchen, started two new crafting projects and I’m getting ready to work on one of the latter. I’ve had this insane burst of energy this week and I wanted to utilize it in a productive manner and although I’ve accomplished a lot these past few days, I always feel the need to incorporate my little ones in something too.

I woke up wanting to create something new and wanted to feed their creative nature as well. My first thought was painting but since I’ve run out of spare cloth I needed something else, something more hands on than their last.

Home made play-dough.

The recipe for this is super easy.

Food colouring (or sugar free Kool-Aid powder)

1 cup of flour,

1/2 salt,

1 cup water,

2 tablespoons vegetable oil.

Combine water, salt, food colouring and oil into saucepan.

Heat until warm.

Add flour and knead until smooth.

Use a Ziploc bag to store in cool, dry area.

* Adding cream of tartar to the flour allows the dough to be stored for an extra 6 months.

Ok so not technically “away” but this weekend my hubby made a trip to the emergency room and while he was attached to the bed the entire weekend upon his release, I was able to get some crafting done. I wanted to reupholster our couch but after that unplanned financial fiasco I had to make do with something not so costly.

Cutting and painting glass.

You don’t need much to do this project: Cold water, string, Acetone (nail polish remover), A lighter or matches and scissors or, in my case, my husband’s carpet knife and instead of buying expensive glass paint, I made my own using Elmer’s school glue, food colouring and dish liquid. Everything I needed was already in the house, with the exception of the string and food colouring, so I knew that this was going to be a project that I could do every week without worrying about putting a dent in the bank account. Which makes me very happy.

This is my set up.

I also enlisted the help of two assistants to make this project move a little faster.

Once the string is wrapped around the part of the bottle you’d like to cut, and let me take a moment to point out that the bottle in the picture, did not break, at all. I tried it at least 3 times and I believe it was just too thick so chose your bottles carefully. Wine bottles work very well I learned. After the string is wrapped, take it off and saturate it with acetone. Try not to get any of the acetone on the rest of the bottle, the flame will follow the trail and when you go to place it in the cold water, the whole bottle will break. Again, learned from trial and error. I found the easiest way, for me, was to take some of the acetone and poor it directly over the string after I tied it and then wipe the bottle dry.

Next, take your matches or lighter and light the string. It will immediately catch fire if done properly so take this time, while it burns off, to spin the bottle slowly one direction and then the other. Once all of the acetone has burned away place the bottle in the cold water and it should instantly break.

That’s the fun part!

To paint the bottles mix your school glue with the food colouring dye of your choice, add a few drops of dish liquid and mix. Once your bottle is completely dry, inside and out, fill the inside with your paint and turn the bottle to coat the inside. You can use a skinny paint brush if needed. Paint the outside using a regular brush and try not to leave streaks or drip marks in the paint so it will have a nice smooth surface when it dries. The finished look is beautifully coloured new pieces for you to decorate your home.

The girls and I are beyond ready for a little Trick or Treating today. The hubs and I purchased their costumes a few days ago in order to get them ready for our town’s downtown trick or treating extravaganza. Over 50 companies held their doors open for two hours just to hand out candy to the little ones. It was truly amazing to see, all the little ones and adults all costumed up and parading from door to door. I think my favourite part was all of the chocolate the girls received and in true mother fashion, I took it all. Not to be cruel but because the last thing my children need is chocolate. They have this natural energy high that if I could bottle and sell, would make me a trillionaire!

This year the girls were able to pick out their own costumes and thankfully we didn’t wait last minute like the year before. My youngest wanted to be Thomas the Train and my eldest, Snow White. Perfectly fitting if you knew the personalities of these two.

Having twins with completely different personalities is a blessing and a curse. A blessing because you know that they’ll be into totally different things but also a curse because if one has something, the other has to as well. I guess that only applies to the youngest twin but being the youngest myself..I can see where she gets her since of “I want one toooo!”

Since today is actually Halloween and even more festivities will be lining the streets. I thought I’d take the girls to an actual neighborhood considering we live on a street with three houses, one being our own. They haven’t taken off their costumes all week and have been wanting to go trick or treating again so today is the day! (:

Tonight I let my eldest daughter pick what she wanted for dinner. The past few days I’ve been letting the girls explore their independence more in the kitchen. Yes, I’m one of those moms. I freak out about everything but considering I’ve been freaking out about everything these past 4 years, I’ve also slowly driven myself mad. So, I’m taking a new approach. Self exploration. They’ve always been pretty independent kids, which is nice… to a point. I’ve always said the kitchen was off limits but since I’ve been finding myself spending a lot of my free time there baking and cooking up culinary awesomness, I figured a few extra hands couldn’t help.

So far they’ve helped with little things like mastering the art of mixing, sifting and cleaning the utensils after they’ve been dipped in chocolate. All good qualities to have in a assistance chef if you ask me. Tonight though, it’s a bit different. I gave her the option to pick: (1) meat (2) vegetables and (1) dessert (i.e you get apple sauce or peaches) and to my delight she picked the easiest thing in the world to make. Smoked sausage and potatoes with sauteed baby carrots.

Mother approved.

I was thinking we were headed down pizza alley or fish finger way but thankfully she actually picked something everyone enjoys eating. I couldn’t be happier and I’m sure her sister, whom is my little carnivore, is excited about tonight’s dinner. Especially since she was napping while it was being made and just woke to hear the good news. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her get out of her bed faster. Not that I’m complaining.

I think after dinner I’m going to settle in and start doing my Halloween decorations. I’ve yet to get the girls a costume but I think I know who wants to be what. My oldest wants to be Minnie or a Disney Princess and my youngest wants to be Thomas the Train. She’s on this train kick, I wish I could find a train around here and let her ride on one. Maybe I’ll take her to the one at the zoo, then we can ride around the park on the train and she can spaz happily like her mother would.

It was absolutely perfect. It wasn’t too hot not to mention the typical summer rush of beach goers was down to a minimum of, well, hardly anyone. There was another family there with their son, an older lady who came to sit out and read and my family. Perfect! We didn’t have to deal with the pushing and shoving of drunken tourist or more importantly, the drunken locals. It was an easy going venture that lead to some great memories, a much needed rest for the hubby and I and some great outdoor time for the girls.

The one thing I would have loved to have prevented would have been the lady and her family feeding the birds. Ugh! Those seagulls are vial, nasty creatures that I despise. As I was touring the dock with the girls a guy walked by eating something and right above him, hovering over his head as if he were food himself, were a flock of seagulls. I couldn’t believe how nonchalant he was, walking down the boardwalk munching on a his savory burger, but I guess for some it makes no difference.

The best part is that the girls enjoyed the outing. It’s been awhile since we’ve been able to get out to the beach and today was a real treat for them. They played in the water a bit and attempted to build a sandcastle, which was always being destroyed if one didn’t like the direction it was going; sibling rivalry at it’s finest I guess. I’m just happy the whole family had fun and that’s really what matters. Taking the time out of our hectic schedule to enjoy what really matters: